Love at First Sight?
by athenasqueen
Summary: Love at first sight had always sounded like a bit of bullshit to him...


A draft found its way under his blankets and his eyes were suddenly open, body tense as he became alert. But the cold air that had seeped in was soon replaced by a warm body pressed against him and he found himself relaxing. Even in the dark, Wolf knew exactly who it was. The nightmares that kept her awake at times had driven her here before, to the one place she truly felt at ease. She managed to fit perfectly into his arms, almost as if she had been made just for him. His arms encircled her, burying his face against the crook of her neck.

"Sasha," he mumbled the greeting against her skin, feeling her shift slightly in his grip to find a more comfortable position. "Next time try not to let the cold air in."

It was an attempt at a distraction, to take her mind off what had obviously brought her here. Sasha Cooper may have been one of the strongest women he knew but that didn't mean the surviving the Red Flu hadn't left her unmarked. She had watched people she loved die, just like they all had. Things like that usually weren't so easy to forget. And though she hid it better than most, at times like this, left alone in the middle of the night, things tended to creep up on one.

"And here I was thinking you were supposed to be tough," she mumbled back, rolling over in the narrow bunk so that she was facing him, fingertips tracing the lines of his face. "The big, bad Wolf taken down by a little bit of cold air."

He caught her hands, bringing them to his mouth, kissing her fingers gently, the feeling of having her here, lying beside him still surreal. For the longest time, he had kept his distance from her, out of respect to the Captain. It hadn't been hard to tell that the two of them had clearly meant something to each other once. He hadn't planned on getting in the way of that, despite the fact it felt like he'd been shot through the chest when he first laid eyes on Sasha Cooper in that building in China.

Love at first sight had always sounded like a bit of bullshit to him. Even now, he wouldn't say that was what happened. You couldn't love someone if you didn't know them and all their strange quirks. But even he couldn't deny the shock that had hit him when he had first met Sasha. He had been with a lot of women, but none of them had ever quite affected him the way she had. Tall, dark haired with piercing blue grey eyes that seemed as they could stare into someone's soul, he had found himself unable to look away at the start. But at the time of that meeting, he had been with Val, and she had only had eyes for Chandler. And so nothing had ever come of it. He respected the man too much to even consider the idea of acting on his feelings for her.

It hadn't taken long before the two of them had become friends. She was funny, smart and almost as sarcastic as he was when she wanted to be. It was so easy to be himself around her, to simply relax like he hadn't done since Ravit died. But Sasha had made it possible. Somehow, somewhere, he'd managed to let his guard down around her. She wasn't afraid of a little danger, didn't want to sit on the sidelines just because she was a woman, and Wolf truly admire that about her. She could look after herself, even if some of the others in the crew couldn't see it.

And while he had been pissed at Chandler's casual disregard of her, his expectations that she would always be there regardless of whether or not he gave her the time of day, he couldn't help but be thankful that the Captain's foolishness had managed to give him a chance. Yet in spite of everything, he hadn't been able to bring himself to take their friendship any further. Oh, he wanted to, more than anything, but he didn't know if Sasha was ready for anything more than a friend. After the shit she'd be put through, he didn't blame her if she wasn't.

"What are you thinking about?" she murmured, drawing him out of his thoughts, warm body pressed flush against him, only serving to make him aware again of how close she was to him. It took him a moment to realise she was speaking to him, mind still disoriented from not being fully awake yet.

"A bit of everything," he replied, his voice still gravelly with sleep and disuse, arm absentmindedly slinging itself over her body as she nestled in closer as she sought out his warm, and the comfort of human contact. "Now, if you plan on moving about all night, Cooper, I will be sending you back to your own bed."

She gave a slight snort at that, clearly not believing a word he said. She was right, of course. He much preferred to keep her here, curled up beside him, though he wasn't about to voice that aloud. He'd never hear the end of it if he did. And he was pretty fucking sure he'd lose his bed to her altogether. And as much as Wolf loved her, the bunks on the ship were too narrow to have her here as often as he wanted.

"Do you ever think about what life would have been like if…" she trailed off, the sentence going unfinished, though Wolf knew exactly what she was talking about. "There are times when I wonder how life would have played out. Do you ever think about that? Of what we could have had if it hadn't all been taken from us?"

He had never given it much thought, though he supposed he still would have been in the Australian Navy, doing what he had been doing before the Red Flu had wiped out half the population and thrown the world into turmoil. After that… he hadn't really given it much thought. There wasn't much point in thinking of things that could have been. If Wolf was anything, it was a realist, and there was no point in dwelling on the past or what could have been. He accepted his lot without complaint, and simply went from there.

"Guess I would have just been doing what I had been before," he told her with a half shrug, his body shifting slightly against hers. "Never really had much of a plan on where I was going in life. But there are some bonuses to this whole mess. Without it, I would have never had the chance to meet you and your charming personality, Cooper."

His tone had taken on a slightly teasing note at the end, once again attempting to distract her from what had driven her here in the first place. The effort hadn't gone unnoticed and he could almost feel her rolling her eyes at him, and a wide grin broke out across his features. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, almost like she was afraid he'd disappear. There was silence after that, and it took him a moment to realise she had finally fallen asleep. With a little grin, the Australian pressed a light kiss to the top of her head, and settled himself into a more comfortable position.

While sleeping had never been a problem for him (for, like any soldier, Wolf had developed the ability to get some shut eye practically anywhere), the swirling thoughts in his head didn't let it come so easily this time. For a long time, he lay there in the dark still awake, thinking over the things Sasha had said. What would things have been like if he had never never joined the Nathan James, if he had never met her? She had become such a big part of his life, that the thought of what it was like without her… well Wolf couldn't even think of what that would have been like.

Glancing down at the sleeping form in his arms, Wolf was slowly beginning to realise that Sasha Cooper had come to mean a lot more to him then he had previously thought. And maybe love at first wasn't a thing, but he did know he was falling further in love with the dark haired woman with every day that passed.

A jolt passed through him at that, shocking him into disbelief. He had never voiced that thought before, not even to himself. To do so would have made it seem more real, and he wasn't sure either one of them was ready for that. But there was no denying it anymore. He was in love with her, and looking back at it now, it was clear to see that deep down, he had known it all along. Pressing another kiss to her head, the dark haired Australia let his own eyes close, the conclusion he had come to finally slowing the swirling thoughts in his head.


End file.
